The 2020 Mumbai Indians (MI) team was largely considered perhaps the best T20 franchise XI ever played. The team had everything – a power-packed top order and a blistering and consistent middle order of Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Keiron Pollard. Not to miss was Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult’s brilliance. But what it lacked was a star spinner. The IPL 2025 MI team has Pandya and Boult back but the addition of Mitchell Santner has rounded up the bowling attack completely.
Yes, back in 2019 and 2020, the likes of Krunal Pandya and Rahul Chahar did get the job done, but they are no Santner. The left-arm Kiwi stalwart is perhaps one of the best white-ball spinners going around in world cricket at the moment. As a matter of fact, since 2023, he has been one of the leading wicket-taking spinners with 103 scalps at 26.00 in international cricket. This also includes his heroics against India, where he took 13 wickets in a Test match in Pune last year.
Mitchell Santner’s masterclass for MI against DC
All the magic that Santner creates depends on his trajectory and speed – two components every spinner relies on – but Santner seems to have mastered the art. Notwithstanding the risk of getting hit, Santner loops in front of a batter and forces them to make mistakes. A mastery of his spin bowling was on full display when MI needed him the most. In a virtual do-or-die game, Santner spun a web around the Delhi Capitals (DC).
He basically bamboozled the entire middle order of DC, which looked threatening at one point. Vipraj Nigam, Sameer Rizvi and Ashutosh Sharma – three of the highest run-getters for DC on the day – got outclassed by the sheer brilliance of Santner, who used all the grip that was available at the Wankhede Stadium.
His 15th over, in particular, was one of the best overs you’ll ever see. He darted in the first ball at 96 kmph before slowing the pace right down and completely deceiving Rizvi on the sweep shot. The masterclass in spin bowling continued after he lured Ashutosh for a drive, only to beat him with some superb left-arm turn. He finished the spell with godly figures of 3/11!
Spinners Mumbai Indians tried before Santner’s arrival
- Piyush Chawla – Did well, but was at the dying stage of his career
- Shreyas Gopal – Didn’t get many chances
- Raghav Goyal – Highly inexperienced
- Shams Mulani – Didn’t get many chances
- Kumar Kartikeya – Showed potential, but his form nosedived
- Murugan Ashwin – Offloaded after just 1 season
- Mayank Markane – Mishandled
- Hrithik Shokeen – Average off-spinner in IPL
- Fabian Allen – Not used enough, not potent enough for IPL
The above list easily depicts a picture that MI desperately needed a spinner to control the run rate in the middle overs. Many a time, the side leaked too much in the middle overs and were forced to bring in Bumrah early on his second spell. In fact, from IPL 2020 to IPL 2024, MI had the worst spin-bowling unit. In these five years, the tweakers for MI took only 111 wickets, the lowest among teams that played all five seasons. Both their bowling average (34.30) and economy (8.26) were the second worst as well.
At every IPL auction, MI fans yearned for their team to sign a star spinner until “sanity” prevailed at the IPL 2025 mega auction. MI raised the paddle at Rs 2 crore, and to the surprise of many, they got the Kiwi white-ball captain for his base price! It has proven to be an absolute steal. So far at IPL 2025, Santner has taken just seven wickets across ten innings, but his economy rate of 7.60 is the 4th-best among spinners after Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine.
It is fascinating that Santner previously spent as many as five years at the Chennai Super Kings (CSK). From 2019-20 to 2022-2024, Santner was more or less a squad player for Chennai, who only utilised him when they needed three or more spinners. Otherwise, Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali and Maheesh Theekshana did the job for them most of the time.
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